Energy Prices and Induced Technological Progress

This study measures energy price induced technological change using directional distance function for a panel data of 55 countries over the period 1974 to 2000. The parameter estimates of directional distance function reveal the absence of neutral exogenous innovations and the presence of biased innovations either it is exogenous or energy price induced. We observe larger energy price induced technological change effects in developed countries in comparison to developing countries in the periods after first (1974), and second (1980) world oil crisis that caused substantial energy price increases. These findings concur with data that show most R&D occurs in high-income countries, particularly the US and Japan.

A Study on Technical Efficiency of Wheat Cultivation in Haryana

The farm-specific technical efficiency of wheat cultivation in Haryana at the aggregate and disaggregate levels has been studied using stochastic frontier approach. A high degree of technical inefficiency in wheat farming has been reported, which is due to factors under farm’s control. It has been argued that wheat-cultivating farms in the state can increase their production by 27 per cent without increasing the quantity of inputs, i.e. just by way of realizing efficiency. The estimates of technical efficiency have indicated that small-size farms are more efficient than medium- and large-size farms, negating thereby the myth that large-size farming is more profit/business-oriented.Crop Production/Industries,

Energy Prices and Induced Technological Progress

This study measures energy price induced technological change using directional distance function for a panel data of 55 countries over the period 1974 to 2000. The parameter estimates of directional distance function reveal the absence of neutral exogenous innovations and the presence of biased innovations either it is exogenous or energy price induced. We observe larger energy price induced technological change effects in developed countries in comparison to developing countries in the periods after first (1974), and second (1980) world oil crisis that caused substantial energy price increases. These findings concur with data that show most R&D occurs in high-income countries, particularly the US and Japan.

Analysing industrial water demand in India: An input distance function approach.

This study investigates the water demand of Indian manufacturing plants. It adopts an input distance function approach and approximates it by a translog form. Duality between cost function and input distance function is exploited to retrieve information concerning substitutability and the shadow price of water. The model is estimated, using linear programming approach, on a sample of 92 firms over the three years. The results show that the average shadow price of water is rupees 7.21 per kilolitre and the price elasticity of derived demand for water is high, -1.11 on average, a value similar to what has been found by other researchers working on developing countries (for example, China and Brazil). This indicates that water charges may be an effective instrument for water conservation.Input distance function ; Industrial water demand ; Translog form water ; Price elasticity

The Macroeconomic Effects of Oil Price Shocks: Empirical Evidence for India

This study assesses the oil prices-macaroeconomy relationship by means of multivariate VAR using both linear and non-linear specifications. Scaled oil prices model outperforms other models used in the study. It studies the impacts of oil price shocks on the growth of industrial production for Indian economy over the period 1975Q1-2004Q3. It is found that oil prices Granger cause macroeconomic activities. Evidence of asymmetric impact of oil price shocks on industrial growth is found. Oil price shocks negatively affect the growth of industrial production and we find that an hundred percent increase in oil prices lowers the growth of industrial production by one percent. Moreover, the variance decomposition analysis while putting the study in perspective finds that the oil price shocks combined with the monetary shocks are the largest source of variation in industrial production growth other than the variable itself.

Decomposition of total factor productivity growth: A regional analysis of Indian industrial manufacturing growth.

Total factor productivity (TFP) growth in industrial manufacturing is measured for 15 major Indian states for the period 1982-83 to 2000-01 using non-parametric linear programming methods. TFP growth is decomposed into efficiency and technological changes and also measure for the bias in technical change. The resulting information is used to examine whether the post-reform period shows any improvement in productivity and efficiency in comparison to the pre-reform one. Findings of the present exercise indicate the improvement in TFP. The recent change in TFP is governed by the technical progress in contrast to similar gain caused by the improvement in technical efficiency in the pre-reform regime. The technological progress in state manufacturing exhibited a capital using bias during the study period. Regional differences in TFP persist, although the magnitude of variation has declined in the post-reform period. Moreover, it is also found that there is a tendency of convergence in terms of TFP growth rate among Indian states during the post-reform years and only the states that were technically efficient at the beginning of the reform remain innovative.Industry ; Industrial manufacturing ; Growth ; Total factor productivity

Polynomial optimization techniques for activity scheduling. Optimization based prototype scheduler

Polynomial optimization techniques for activity scheduling (optimization based prototype scheduler) are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: agenda; need and viability of polynomial time techniques for SNC (Space Network Control); an intrinsic characteristic of SN scheduling problem; expected characteristics of the schedule; optimization based scheduling approach; single resource algorithms; decomposition of multiple resource problems; prototype capabilities, characteristics, and test results; computational characteristics; some features of prototyped algorithms; and some related GSFC references

Productivity and profitability changes in the U.S. electric power plants during SO2 trading regime.

We examine the productivity and profitability changes in the US electric generating plants during the SO2 trading regime. Input distance function is used to compute the cumulative Malmquist productivity and Fisher productivity indexes. By exploiting the duality between cost and input distance functions, we obtain a measure of profitability, as an approximation for the Fisher productivity index. We measure productivity and profitability changes when SO2 emissions are ignored in the production technology and when these emissions appear as bad output. We find that the productivity is higher when the bad outputs are modeled as weakly disposable in comparison to the situation when they are modeled as freely disposable. But we do not find any significant difference in profitability under these alternative methods of modeling of production technology concerning the disposability of bad outputs.Electricity generating plants ; Productivity ; Profitability ; SO2 ; Allowance program